Fits and Starts

It's called Holmes Place.  It's a bit too mainstream for my tastes, but it is conveniently located 2 blocks from home.  I had tried to find something like my Jazzercise studio in Royal Oak, MI here, but they don't have fitness center's dedicated to aerobic dance.  They have dance studios (I found one that had a lot of class options, but it's a 40 minute walk from home, most of the classes were after 8pm, and they wanted about $15 per 1 hour class, which at 3x/week gets expensive).  The alternative I found in Tel Aviv is aerobic dance classes offered at some of the gyms, like Holmes Place.  So zumba and energy dance at the gym it is for me.  Since I have the membership now, I'm planning to try out other classes too, just for balance and curiosity, like yoga, pilates, and maybe belly dancing.  When in the middle east, right? 

Getting my membership began with the usual thinly veiled hard sell from a gym rep.  They called relentlessly to follow up.  And I hmm'd and haa'd over it until I got them to eliminate the registration fee (about $100), lower the early cancellation fee (from $100 to about $50), and take my payments in two installments (whereby I gave them a temporary limited credit card # on the first payment, so I'm really not locked into the one year contract if I don't want to be).  Now they call me regularly but don't leave messages.  And they text me in Hebrew (which I can read about 1/10th of - I thought that was pretty impressive).  However, I discovered the hard way, when I showed up for my "free" nutritionist appointment earlier this week (that unbenounced to me, was cancelled), that the rep who sold me the membership forgot to write "English" on my file, which explains some of the miscommunication. 

As with everything around here, I don't fit the mold, so anything new comes in fits and starts. 

Ugly America

It's not all sunshine and roses here in Israel (ok, maybe sunshine), but recent dealings with U.S. lawyers and healthcare insurers have reminded me just how pathetic some American social systems are. 

The lawyers
We have assistance from lawyers as part of our relocation to ensure that we can be in a foreign country legally.  The work is outsourced to an American firm, which acts as a third party liason between corporate and the local country lawyers, who actually do the work here.  The American firm (ask me if you want to know which one so you can avoid them, although I have little faith that they are an exception to the rule), has done nothing but worry the local firm about the scope of help they can provide.  AND, they are now bullying the local firm against working with us directly (at our own expense) so that THEY can upcharge and take their piece of the pie.  Behavior like this should be criminal. 

Health insurers
Our plan offers 15 visits of accupuncture per calendar year, per person.  I have asked at least 6 phone agents since we got here whether there are any restrictions or special "medical necessity" paperwork required.  I have been told as many different answers.  Reading between the lines (or piecing together the bits of information they have let slip), there seems to be an internal list of which diagnoses they will actually approve in the claims processing department.  However, this list is not printed in any materials that they make public.  I have been able to get phone agents to rattle off parts of the list - coverage for pain, but not for carpel tunnel syndrome, for instance.  All I can say is, if you're going to provide coverage, do it.  If you're going to restrict it, put it in writing, and arm your customer service agents with the same information you give your claims processing agents.  Don't tell me that "acupuncture is covered, no pre-approval needed," and then reject a claim because the diagnosis was on your secret do-not-fly list.